Five women find themselves drawn together through several lifetimes. The challenges they face deal with love and betrayal and finding their way to personal independence. What is the strange attraction they feel toward the sinister man around whom they orbit like satellites? Which of them will break free, and which will fall victim to him again and again?

The five women, each symbolized by a different flower, start out as the first five wives of King Henry VIII. Then they reincarnate in Victorian London and again in California in the 1960's. All are historical figures. I very much enjoyed having to dig deep within myself to experience their life events and choices and to understand what motivated those choices. This is very much a character driven novel. I hope the readers enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Five Flowers is published by Katmoran Publications, an independent publisher.

"Daphne was sound asleep when a man arrived in her dream with a warm, orange glow about him, like a fireball of warmth and energy; he was smiling the warmest smile she had ever encountered. To say she was attracted to this dark-haired, olive-skinned creature, like a moth to a flame, didn't begin to describe it. He was somehow intimately familiar to her. Before she knew what was happening, she was flying along at his side, too fast for feet to keep up, much less touch the ground, and with no effort.

"They were flying fast above houses and trees, and as they left the planet further and further beneath and behind them, it seemed it was the vibration that was propelling them. Daphned felt like her body had turned into pure harmonic vibration, and together they flew on the same wavelength until they were soaring among the stars beyond the solar system.

"Daphne found herself dreaming of this angel and flying with him almost every night. Sometimes he appeared to her in a silvery light with bright white hair, but most of the time he was dark surrounded by light."

About DragonflyDreams

Daphne Robin is ecstatic. She has just married Richard, the most wonderful man she's ever met, and they will honeymoon in Scotland. But on the eve of their departure, Daphne has a terrifying nightmare about Richard that leaves her shaken. The dream turns into reality when Richard begins abusing her in Scotland. Several months later, following his brutal attack, when Daphne announces she has become pregnant , he brutally attacks her--and then she suffers a miscarriage. The only place Daphne can find refuge from her wrecked life is within her dream world. She often dreams of a warm-hearted, tender man who comforts her and provides for her every need. Daphne retreats from reality more and more, and soon, as the years pass by, she becomes a shell of the woman she once was. Eventually, however, she reaches her breaking point; Daphne gathers the strength to escape her husband's clutches. She heads to her sister's place in Washington and meets Major Ursa-Barrios, a retired army officer who has pledged to help her. The two fall deeply in love, and Daphne wonders if this kind, generous man can possibly be her salvation. Although the Major is retired, Daphne's sister is still in service. When the sisters seek to explore their dreams through past life regression techniques, they discover secrets about their pasts that could reveal the purpose of their current lives...

Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeaton Dragonfly Dreams:

Franki deMerle has done it again with a book of mystery, love and a certain air of suspense. The more I read, the more I wanted answers to the character's dreams but I wasn't really expecting what the dreams actually turned out to be.

"Emily Dickinson burned with the desire to be loved. She felt somehow that her feverishness was merely a manifestation of her yearning to be freely accepted for who she was.

"To be free...

"She craved acceptance after so much rejection, indifference, and isolation. Everywhere there were judgments. Always other people had their judgments. Emily was too unconventional."

About Deception Past: A Novel

Sand Strasberg remembers having lived before and dying in an oven at Dachau. She grows up in Huntsville, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and early US manned spaceflight, and goes to work for a local newspaper. Sand's aunt is murdered, and the police murder investigation leaves unresolved questions. Her family finds a blackmail package. It disappears but resurfaces under questionable circumstances. Sand finally learns her past life identity only after it is stolen by a former friend. Her story is told by Brenda, a member of a family with whom Sand's life intertwines. Brenda's family must deal with mental illness, suicide, child and domestic abuse, and bigamy.

Also by Franki deMerle

Ripples On the Surface: A collection of Poetry written 1969-2006, Bestseller

All author's proceeds from the first edition went to Global Partners for Development's Piggery Program to establish piggeries for women in Uganda with HIV/AIDS so they can become self-sufficient, feed and clothe their families, and send their children to school. Global Partners for Development,www.gpfd.org, is the winner of the 2006 Albert Schweitzer Award of Excellence. Second edition proceeds, like all my other books, go to help support a retired school teacher.